Verizon Misses Earnings Estimates; Shares Fall

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Verizon(:VZ) missed Wall Street's fourth-quarter earnings estimates, pushing down the shares in pre-market trading. Revenue rose to a record.

The No. 1 telecommunications firm had revenue of $28.4 billion, an increase of 7.7% from a year earlier, edging analysts' estimate of $28.39 billion. Excluding items, however, Verizon earned 52 cents a share, just below forecasts of 53 cents.
Verizon reported its fourth-quarter results before market open on Friday.

On a GAAP basis, the telecom giant reported a loss of 71 cents a share, which was impacted by non-cash pension items, compared with earnings of 93 cents a share in the prior year's quarter.

Nonetheless, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said the company is well-positioned as it enters 2012.

"Verizon finished 2011 very strong, both in terms of revenue growth and by delivering an 18.2% total return to our shareholders for the full year, and the company has great momentum for 2012," he said in a statement released before market open. "Verizon Wireless produced particularly strong growth in the fourth quarter."

Revenue from Verizon's Wireless division was $18.3 billion during the quarter, an increase of 13%. On the Wireline side of its business, Verizon said it had a net increase of 98,000 broadband connections from the prior quarter.

Investors were less than impressed by Verizon's numbers, pushing the company's stock down 1.7% to $37.80 in pre-market trading.

Verizon's arch-rival AT&T reports its fourth-quarter results before market open on Thursday.

--Written by James Rogers in New York.

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